WESTERN PINE BELT OF THE PIEDMONT PLATEAU. 205 



chestnut oak becomes a tree of economic consideration. There is 

 not so much hickory as in the oak forests of the central portion of 

 the state this group being represented chiefly by the pignut, white, 

 and some smallnut. The sourwood becomes even more conspicuous 

 than in Davie and Guilford counties, and along the hollows and 

 northern slopes there is some yellow poplar, ash and northern 

 red oak. 



These woods are in a far more uniform condition than those 

 lying to the eastward and are much less broken. There are 

 broad expanses of woods, formed of pine mixed with broad-leaf 

 trees, with the cover entire or somewhat broken, and dotted with 

 small groves of pure pine, either the short-leaf or the scrub, in 

 old fields ; or there are extensive areas of culled or coppiced 

 woodland adjacent to the farms and small towns. 



Throughout some portions of the division cattle have been 

 excluded from the woodland for periods of from five to ten years, 

 but most parts are yet pastured. The forest floor is generally 

 poor, the underwood thin or entirely absent, and the cover of the 

 mature trees open. ' ,^'"' 



The original forest is from 70 to 80 feet in heiglit, though in 

 many places it will not be over 60 feet where tlie soils are thin 

 and poor, while in hollows and on cool slopes many trees will 

 measure over 100 feet in height. Considering the division as a 

 whole, the trees stand in relative abundance about in tlie follow- 

 ing order: short-leaf pine, scarlet oak, black oak, white oak, 

 sourwood, chestnut oak, post oak, Spanish oak, and white hickory. 

 These form considerably over three-fourths of the growth. ' Less 

 abundant and forming the larger portion of the remainder of the 

 growth are the dogwood, pignut, chestnut, black-jack oak, black 

 gum, and small-nut hickory, scrub pine, and red maple. 



The culled woods show an increased proportion of young pine; 

 while scarlet oak, chestnut oak, and sourwood are increasing in 

 both culled and coppice woods, the scarlet oak more rapidly than 

 any other oak. Its young growth often forms thickets in the 

 open spaces where trees are removed in culling; and in coppiced 

 woodland it reproduces rapidly both by seedlings and stool-shoots. 

 It is chiefly on the drier sandy and rocky soils that the chestnut 



